Modifying room atmospheric conditions



j. 21, 1936. J Ho N 2,028,682

' MODIFYING ROOM ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS Filed'Nov. s, 19:52 7

M 0 Lnhi WLJJ- o 14 Tv 6 k Patented Jan. 21, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MODIFYING ROOM ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS Application November 3, 1932, Serial No. 640,942

3 Claims. (01.240-1) The general object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of and apparatus for modifying atmospheric conditions in a room of such character and so used as to make desir- 5 able special provisions for maintaining atmospheric conditions therein suitable and comfortable for the room occupants. By the term room as used herein, I mean to include generically a single room or space, or a plurality of associated rooms or spaces, used for dwelling and office purposes, or for store, assembly, dining room theatre or other purposes making it desirable to modify atmospheric conditions within such rooms or spaces.

More specifically, the object of the present invention is the provision of simple and effective means and method for preventing or minimizing the deleterious efifect on the atmospheric conditions of a room of heat emitting means in the form of incandescent electric lamps employed for room lighting purposes. As is well known, of the total energy required for the operation of such lamps only about two percent is emitted in useful light rays, the remainder of the energy being dissipated in the form of heat. In accordance with the present invention I substantially eliminate, or largely minimize, the normally adverse efiects on the room atmosphere of such heat emitting devices by moving air over said devices in such fashion that the air will absorb all, or the major portion of the heat dissipated by the devices, and will carry the heat away from the room without otherwise modifying atmospheric conditions therein.

My invention was primarily devised for use, and finds its principal field of use, in connection with relatively large rooms provided with special ventilating and cooling systems, and in particular with systems including air conditioning means for supplying treated air more or less constantly to the rooms. The use of my special heat removing system in combination with any ordinary power actuated room ventilating and air cooling system requires an equipment cost of, and a power consumption in, the combined systems substantially lower, respectively, than the equipment cost of, and power consumption in an ordinary ventilating and air cooling system of sulficient capacity, when used alone, to maintain the same room temperature. In this connection, it should be borne in mind that the cost of producing the refrigeration effect required to absorb a given amount of heat is large in comparison with the cost of handling air to carry away the same amount of heat, and thatthe cost of the equipment required for such a refrigeration or heat absorbing effect is exceedingly high in comparison with the cost of air handling apparatus to carry away the same amount of heat, and that at the present time the high equipment cost of 5 refrigerating apparatus and its high power consumption are the principal items restricting the sale and use of air cooling systems.

I have found, for example, that with a room such as a department store basement or large 10 restaurant dining room as much as nineteen percent in some cases, and about twelve and one-half percent on the average, of the'volume of air supplied for ventilation purposes, and about the same maximum and average percentages of the 15 refrigeration effect needed to de-humidify and cool the air, are required to compensate for, or neutralize the effects of heat emission by the room lighting lamps when heat from the latter is not removed in accordance with the present 20 invention. While my heat removing systemrequires the expenditure of some power, the cost of the power so required is but a small fraction of the saving in power consumption of the ordinary room ventilating and conditioning apparatus which may be obtained by the use of my heat removing system.

Ordinarily the use of the present invention does not prevent the heat dissipating devices from giving some heat to theroom atmosphere, 30 but with the present invention it is readily feasible in ordinary practice to prevent at least eighty percent of the heat dissipated by the lamps from being transferred to the room atmosphere. On the assumption that about one-eighth of the 35 power consumption of an ordinary ventilating and air conditioning system is required to neutralize the effect of heat dissipation by the lamps when my invention is not used, and on the further assumption that by the use of my invention 40 eighty percent of the heat dissipated by the lamps is not transferred to the room atmosphere, the net saving in power consumption obtainable with the present invention should ordinarily amount to about nine percent, or a little more, of 45 the total power consumption otherwise required by the ventilating and conditioning system.

While the use of my invention requires a special duct system for the air used to absorb and carry away the lamp heat, the ducts re- 50 quired are comparatively small and the cost of installation in existing buildings, or of installing ducts in new buildings is relatively small. In the case of new buildings, the duct systemrequired for use of the invention may dvanta eous y b 6 concealed in some cases, and some economy in space and installation cost may be effected, by incorporating the duct system in the building walls or ceiling.

In addition to its desirable efiects on room atmospheric conditions, the cooling of the lamps adds somewhat to their effective lives, and in some cases advantageous use may be made of the air heated in cooling the lamps as for drying purposes, or for tempering the air conditioned by the room ventilating and conditioning system, and for analogous purposes, particularly as the air used in cooling the lamps does not have its purity thereby diminished. The lamp cooling air may be drawn directly from the room, cooled and ventilated, when said air is thereafter mixed with air delivered to the room by a ventilating and cooling system, the dew point of which is carried at such a point that the air is cooled to a temperature so low as to make its direct discharge into the room a source of discomfort to the room occupants. In most uses, however, the air for withdrawing heat from the lamps will be drawn from the atmosphere external to rooms containing said lamps.

The various features of novelty which characterize my invention are pointed out with partisularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification. For a better understanding of the invention, however, and the advantages possessed by it, reference should be had to the accompanying drawing and descriptive matter in which I have illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.

Of the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic plan view of a room with its ceiling removed to illustrate the lamp and lamp cooling arrangement employed;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section showing a portion of the ceiling of the room of Fig. 1, and one of the lamps and associated parts, the section being taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section taken similarly to Fig. 3 illustrating a modified duct arrangement;

Fig. 5 is a vertical section of a portion of the ceiling and side wall of a room provided with indirect lighting and associated heat removing provisions; and

Fig. 6 is an elevation of a special form of an electric lamp which may be used.

In the drawing and referring first to the arrangement shown by Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A represents a large room, such as a department store, basement or public dining room, provided with a multiplicity of incandescent electric lamps B arranged in rows extending across the room immediately below its ceiling. As shown, each lamp B is secured at its upper end in a socket 11 carried by a vertical pipe or conduit section b which might be attached at its upper end to any crdinary ceiling outlet box or fixture, but which as shown, is a downturned portion of a conductor enclosing conduit having its horizontal body portion b located in the space A customarily provided between the concrete floor slab for the room above and the metal lath and plaster part A forming the ceiling proper for the room shown in Fig. 1.

Surrounding each lamp supporting pipe b, and extending downward from the ceiling part A is a hollow metal casing or fixture E the internal diameter of which is substantially greater than the external diameter of the pipe b. The fixture E is provided at its lower end with an opening closed by a transparent lamp globe F surrounding the lamp B and formed with an opening at its upper side. That opening is in register with the bottom opening in the fixture E. The fixture or casing E is provided at its lower side with means E of any suitable form for securing the globe F to the casing and preventing air leakage through the joint between the latter and the fixture. Air for absorbing and removing heat iron.

.each lamp enterseach fixture E through a corresponding supply duct C, and leaves the fixture E through a corresponding exhaust duct D. To insure the proper fiow of the air over the lamp the fixture E is provided with a diametral division wall or partition E extending transversely to the direction of the ducts C and C and comprising, as shown, a plate like portion between each side of the conduit b and the adjacent wall of the fixture E. The lower edge of the partition E registers with the upper side of a partition or baiiie plate F in the globe F arranged in the same plane as, and forming a flow deflecting extension of the partition E The partition F is cut away at F however, to provide a suitably restricted flow space or passage through which the air entering the fixture through the supply conduit 0 passes to the corresponding exhaust conduit D, and in doing so is brought into suitable contact with the external surface of the lamp. Advantageously the baffle or plate F is formed of suitably transparent material such as clear mica, glass or a suitably stiff sheet of such compound, or material as that used in forming cellophane sheets.

As shown, a trunk duct C alongside each en wall of the room supplies air to the ducts C leading to the immediately adjacent lamps, and for each two intermediate rows of lamps there is a corresponding trunk duct C between said two rows and supplying air to the ducts C leading to the lamps in said rows. The trunk ducts C' are shown as each receiving air at one end from a supply main C running along one side of the room and receiving air from the external atmosphere through a wall inlet passage 0 in which an air filter C is advantageously located. The individual lamp exhaust ducts D deliver air to trunk' exhaust ducts D. As shown, the latter alternate with the supply trunk ducts C and each exhaust trunk duct D receives the air from all of the individual ducts D leading from the lamps in each adjacent row. At the opposite side of the room from that at which the supply main C is located, is an exhaust main D to which the corresponding ends of all the exhaust trunk ducts D are connected. Intermediate its ends the exhaust main D is provided with an outlet D connected to the inlet of an exhaust fan (1 having an outlet (1' which may discharge into the external atmosphere or may deliver air to a drying system or to some other apparatus in which the air delivered may be utilized. The fan d is driven in any usual or suitable manner. For example, as indicated, it may be driven by a motor 0 through a belt connection.

The lamp B shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is provided with integral external ribs or fins B radial to the axis of the lamp and serving to increase the capacity of the lamp to transfer heat to the cooling air flowing over the lamp. Alternatively such fins may be circumferentially disposed about the axis of the lamp as shown are the fins B in Fig. 6. However, the present invention does not require the use of lamps having special cooling fins, but on the contrary, any ordinary standard form of incandescent lamp may be used with satisfactory results. The globes F may also be of any suitable standard form, though special globe forms may be used, of course, when made desirable by special conditions.

In installing a lamp heat removing system in accordance with the present invention, in new buildings or in buildings which are being remodeled, the lamp cooling ducts may be incorporated in the ceiling structure between the ceiling part A and the superposed floor slab A, as shown in Fig. 4. With the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 the ceiling structure part A provides heat insulation minimizing the transfer of heat from the ducts D to the room atmosphere. However, even when exposed as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 it will ordinarily be unnecessary to provide any special heat insulation for any portions of the lamp duct system as the temperature of the air in said system will not be greatly above the room temperature, and the transfer of heat from the small surface area of the ducts to the room will be so slight as to be of negligible importance.

My invention is obviously not restricted to use in connection with a room having lamps distributed beneath the ceiling, as shown in Fig. 1, but may be readily adapted to other lamp arrangements. For example, with a so-called indirect lighting system as shown in Fig. 5, the trough member G customarily employed adjacent the upper corners of the room to conceal and enclose the lamps B, may form a part of a duct system serving the general purposes of that shown in Fig. 1. In such a case, suitably shaped partitions or baiiie members H and I may be provided in the trough space to cause the air to flow in suitably close contact with the lamps. As shown, the members H and I extend from the lamp socket fixture b to the transparent plate g forming the top wall of the trough space and through which the light from the lamp passes out of said space. For the purposes of the present invention, special provisions g should be made at the edges of the plate a to prevent air leakage between the trough space and the room.

Fig. 1 includes a conventional diagrammatical illustration of means K including a driving motor K for supplying conditioned air for cooling and ventilating purposes to the room A. While, as previously stated, my invention finds its special utility when used in combination with ventilating and cooling means supplying treated air for ordinary ventilating and cooling purposes, such air conditioning means may obviously be of any usual or suitable form, and as various forms of apparatus for thepurpose are well known and in extensive use, no necessity is seen for any detailed illustration or description of such apparatus herein.

While in accordance with the provisions oi. the statutes, I have illustrated and described the best form of embodiment of my invention now known to me, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the form of the apparatus disclosed without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in the appended claims, and that in some cases certain features of my invention may be used to advantage without a corresponding use 01' other features.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

. 1. The combination with a room for human occupancy and incandescent electric lamps for lighting the room and air ventilating and conditioning means for supplying cooled air tothe room, of means for minimizing the heating efiect of said lamps on the room atmosphere, comprising a duct system having an air inlet and an air outlet, each external to said room and having portions in immediate heat absorbing relation with said lamps, and power means for moving air through said system from said inlet to said outlet.

2. The combination with a room for human occupancy and incandescent electric lamps for lighting the rcom and air ventilating and conditioning means for supplying cooled air to the room, of means for minimizing the heating effect of said lamps on the room atmosphere comprising casings enclosing said lamps, air inlets to said casings, and an air exhausting system including exhaust ducts connected to said casings, and power exhausting means for moving air through said casings and out of said room.

3. The combination with a room and incandescent electric lamps for lighting the room, of means for minimizing the heating efiect of said lamps on the room atmosphere comprising casings enclosing said lamps, each of said casings having an air inlet and including a transparent section transmitting light from a lamp enclosed by the casing and transparent baffie means in said section for directing air fiow through the casing over said lamp while transmitting light from the latter, an air exhausting system including exhaust ducts connected to said casings,

and power exhausting means for moving air through said casings and out of said room.

JAMES H. OBRIEN. 

